Long Life anyone?

Read a brilliant piece in the Observer on the plane home after christmas; "The new sick man of Europe", which puts into a British perspective just what Berlusconi has his fingers in, and how this control is really no laughing matter but should be of concern to all Europeans. I'm sure as the Parmalat scandal unfolds over the coming weeks (any advance on €8bn?) Italy will come under the microscope as creditors and companies in France, Holland, the US and Australia all wriggle. Todays Sunday Herald in a piece on the scandal says that "Italy is perceived to be the second most corrupt nation in Western Europe, just ahead of Greece: “While other countries were changing laws in response to Enron, Italy wasn’t. It was reducing penalties, not increasing them.” Why is everyone so surprised?